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Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

bloomberg.com

11–20 of 166 posts

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#14

A very important question to ask. Should the US make medical gloves?

Someone already decided US should. The important question is whether 1B should have gotten the job done, and if not... is it matter of throwing good $$$ after bad $$$... or is it just bad sign 1B wasn't enough.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#17
post #9

Is this the new “China can’t manufacture a ball point pen”? (Which I strongly suspect they can do at this point. :)

Ballpoint pen tips was proxy Li Keqiang used to shame PRC industry to build precision micromachining capabilities (tungsten carbide for high-end munitions etc), TISCO did it in like a year and it upgraded entire PRC metallurgy chain. US struggling to make 100% indigenized gloves 5+ years after covid... is well maybe not something new relative to US industrial decline, but certainly something else. I'm sure US can... but at what cost and all that.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#18

A very important question to ask. Should the US make medical gloves?

The story says the US doesn't have the raw material(s): NBR. Not quite sure what that is.

NBR = nitrile butadiene rubber, a synthetic rubber. Not really a raw material, as it's synthesized.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#19
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking this question only a handful of years after a global pandemic... If the next pandemic is 50% deadly, not being able to make gloves is surely the canary in the coal mine proving we wouldn't be able to make any other PPE. And no country can rely on another if it's do or die. Other blocs will keep to themselves.

It's amazing how much those spreadsheet heads know nothing about how the actual world works

You gotta optimize everything for the market man! It's magic! Everything will work out if we only make number go up!

Who cares about silly stuff like health emergencies, the climate catastrophe or war. Number must go up!

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